Writers

1. Michael Brandt

Michael Brandt was born on October 1, 1968 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for 3:10 to Yuma (2007), Arthur the King (2024) and Chicago Fire (2012).

James Wan (born 26 February 1977) is an Australian film producer, screenwriter and film director of Malaysian Chinese descent. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw (2004) and creating Billy the puppet. Wan has also directed Dead Silence (2007), Death Sentence (2007), Insidious (2010)...

3. Keanu Reeves

Actor | The Matrix

Keanu Charles Reeves, whose first name means "cool breeze over the mountains" in Hawaiian, was born September 2, 1964 in Beirut, Lebanon. He is the son of Patric Reeves, a showgirl and costume designer, and Samuel Nowlin Reeves, a geologist. Keanu's father was born in Hawaii, of British, Portuguese...

4. Ilya Naishuller

Director | Hardcore Henry

Ilya Naishuller is a film director, actor, producer, screenwriter and the frontman of indie rock band Biting Elbows, founded in 2008. From 8 to 14 he studied in London, and later graduated from the British International School in Yasenevo. Naishuller dropped out of the Institute of Television and ...

5. Nicolas Cage

Actor | Face/Off

Nicolas Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola in Long Beach, California, the son of comparative literature professor August Coppola (whose brother is director Francis Ford Coppola) and dancer/choreographer Joy Vogelsang. He is of Italian (father) and Polish and German (mother) descent. Cage changed his...

6. Lou Simon

Writer | 3

Writer, producer and director, Lou Simon, stumbled into filmmaking by fate and became a "triple threat" within the indie film community by melding passion with hard work. Born in Havana, Cuba, at age nine Ms. Simon and her family migrated to Miami, Florida to escape the communist regime. Ms. Simon ...

7. Roland Emmerich

Writer | Independence Day

Roland Emmerich is a German film director and producer of blockbuster films like The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Godzilla (1998), Independence Day (1996) and The Patriot (2000). Before fame, he originally wanted to be a production designer, but decided to be a director, after watching the original ...

8. Panos Cosmatos

Writer | Mandy

Panos Cosmatos is known for Mandy (2018), Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) and Tombstone (1993).

9. Sylvester Stallone

Actor | Rocky

Sylvester Stallone is an athletically built, dark-haired American actor/screenwriter/director/producer, the movie fans worldwide have been flocking to see Stallone's films for over 40 years, making "Sly" one of Hollywood's biggest-ever box office draws.

Sylvester Stallone was born on July 6, 1946, ...

10. Adam Sandler

Actor | The Waterboy

Adam Richard Sandler was born September 9, 1966 in Brooklyn, New York, to Judith (Levine), a teacher at a nursery school, and Stanley Alan Sandler, an electrical engineer. He is of Russian Jewish descent. At 17, he took his first step towards becoming a stand-up comedian when he spontaneously took ...

11. Stan Lee

Producer | Black Panther

Stan Lee was an American comic-book writer, editor, and publisher, who was executive vice president and publisher of Marvel Comics.

Stan was born in New York City, to Celia (Solomon) and Jack Lieber, a dress cutter. His parents were Romanian Jewish immigrants. Lee co-created Spider-Man, the Hulk, ...

12. Kevin Pollak

Actor | The Usual Suspects

Kevin (Elliott) Pollak was born in San Francisco, California, on October 30, 1957, to Robert and Elaine (Harlow) Pollak, of Jewish descent. A stand-up comedy performer at age 10, he attended Pioneer High School in nearby San Jose, before turning professional comedian at 20. He rose through the ...

13. Will Ferrell

Producer | Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

John William Ferrell was born in Irvine, California, to Betty Kay (Overman), a teacher, and Roy Lee Ferrell, Jr., a musician. His parents were originally from Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.

A graduate of the University of Southern California, Ferrell became interested in performing while a student ...

14. Simon Pegg

Actor | The World's End

English actor, writer, and comedian Simon Pegg was born Simon John Beckingham in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, to Gillian Rosemary (Smith), a civil servant, and John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician. His parents divorced when he was seven. He later took his stepfather's surname "Pegg." He was ...

15. Nick Frost

Actor | The World's End

Nick Frost is an English actor, screenwriter and comedian. He is known for his work in the series of British comedic genre films The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy: Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2013). He also co-starred in Paul (2011), with frequent collaborator ...

16. Robert Downey Jr.

Actor | Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr. has evolved into one of the most respected actors in Hollywood. With an amazing list of credits to his name, he has managed to stay new and fresh even after over four decades in the business.

Downey was born April 4, 1965 in Manhattan, New York, the son of writer, director and ...

17. Guy Ritchie

Director | Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK on September 10, 1968. After watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as a child, Guy realized that what he wanted to do was make films. He never attended film school, saying that the work of film school graduates was boring and ...

18. Danny McBride

Actor | Pineapple Express

Daniel Richard McBride is an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer. He starred in the HBO television series Eastbound & Down, Vice Principals, and The Righteous Gemstones, also co-creating the former two with frequent collaborator Jody Hill while creating the latter himself. He has ...

19. John Carpenter

Writer | The Fog

John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky ...

20. Scott Adkins

Actor | John Wick: Chapter 4

Scott Edward Adkins was born on June 17, 1976 in Sutton Coldfield, England, into a family that for generations were butchers. Along with his elder brother Craig, he was raised by their parents, John and Janet (Sanders) Adkins, in a loving middle-class family. Scott attended Bishop Vesey's Grammar ...

21. Mickey Rourke

Actor | Sin City

Mickey Rourke was born Phillip Andre Rourke, Jr. on September 16, 1952, in Schenectady, New York, the son of Annette Elizabeth (Cameron) and Philip Andre Rourke. His father was of Irish and German descent, and his mother was of mostly English and French-Canadian ancestry. When he was six years old,...

22. Jason Statham

Actor | Crank

Jason Statham was born in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, to Eileen (Yates), a dancer, and Barry Statham, a street merchant and lounge singer. He was a Diver on the British National Diving Team and finished twelfth in the World Championships in 1992. He has also been a fashion model, black market salesman ...

23. Jon Turteltaub

Director | Cool Runnings

Jon Turteltaub was born on August 8, 1963 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Cool Runnings (1993), While You Were Sleeping (1995) and Phenomenon (1996). He has been married to Amy Eldon since July 6, 2006. They have three children.

24. Edward Neumeier

Writer | RoboCop

Edward Neumeier is an American screenwriter, producer and director best known for his work on the science fiction movies RoboCop and Starship Troopers. He wrote the latter's sequel, and most recently wrote and directed Starship Troopers 3: Marauder.

Neumeier studied journalism at the University of ...

25. Adam Green

Writer | Frozen

Adam Green is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and actor known for his success within the horror genre with films like the "Hatchet" franchise, "Frozen," and "Digging Up The Marrow." He is also the creator, writer, director, star, and show runner of the television comedy series "...

26. Rob Schneider

Actor | Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (1975), Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the ...

27. Michael Mann

Producer | The Insider

As a director, screenwriter, and producer, four-time Academy Award nominee Michael Mann has established himself as one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema. After writing and directing the Primetime Emmy Award-winning television movie The Jericho Mile (1979), Mann ...

28. David F. Sandberg

Director | Shazam!

David F. Sandberg is a Swedish film director from Jönköping who is known for directing the superhero comedy film Shazam and the horror films Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation. He lives on the autism spectrum. He also provided the voice of Mister Mind at the end of Shazam and made several short ...

29. Todd Phillips

Producer | Joker

Todd Phillips is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter.

Growing up on Long Island, New York, Todd Phillips fell in love with feature film teen comedies made in the 1980s, and claims they were his biggest influence in becoming a filmmaker. While studying film at New York University, ...

30. Kevin James

Actor | Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Kevin James was born Kevin George Knipfing on April 26, 1965, in Mineola, Long Island, New York, to Janet (Klein), an office worker, and Joseph Valentine Knipfing, Jr., an insurance agency owner. He was raised in Stony Brook, and attended SUNY Cortland, where he played fullback on the football team...

31. Allen Covert

Actor | Grandma's Boy

Allen Stephen Covert is an American comedian, actor, writer and producer who is well-known for the cult classic 2006 film Grandma's Boy. He is also known for his many collaborations alongside Adam Sandler and Happy Madison Productions in films such as Happy Gilmore, 50 First Dates, Little Nicky, ...

32. Ben Affleck

Producer | Argo

Benjamin Géza "Ben" Affleck-Boldt was born on August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, California and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to mother Chris Anne (Boldt), a school teacher, and father Timothy Byers "Tim" Affleck, a social worker. Ben has a younger brother, actor Casey Affleck, who was born in 1975...

33. Christopher Nolan

Writer | Tenet

Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed Academy Award winner writer/director/producer Sir Christopher Nolan CBE was born in London, England. Over the course of more than 25 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the ...

34. Martin Scorsese

Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...

35. James Cameron

Writer | Avatar: The Way of Water

James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...

36. Robert Rodriguez

Producer | El mariachi

Robert Anthony Rodriguez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, USA, to Rebecca (Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman. His family is of Mexican descent.

Of all the people to be amazed by the images of John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi parable, Escape from New York (1981), none ...

37. Tim Burton

Producer | Edward Scissorhands

Timothy Walter Burton was born in Burbank, California, to Jean Rae (Erickson), who owned a cat-themed gift shop, and William Reed Burton, who worked for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department. He spent most of his childhood as a recluse, drawing cartoons, and watching old movies (he was ...

38. David Leitch

Producer | Bullet Train

David Leitch is a billion dollar film director, actor, stuntman, writer, producer, and stunt coordinator. He co-directed John Wick (2014) with Chad Stahelski, on which he also served as producer. David directed Atomic Blonde (2017) starring Charlize Theron. David also directed the box office smash ...

39. Rob Zombie

Writer | Grindhouse

Robert Bartleh Cummings, more famously known as Rob Zombie, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts on January 12, 1965. He is the oldest son of Louise and Robert Cummings, and has a younger brother, Michael David (aka Spider One; b. 1968), who is the lead singer of Powerman 5000. Growing up, Zombie ...

40. Quentin Tarantino

Writer | Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.

In January of...

41. David Yarovesky

Director | Brightburn

David Yarovesky is known for Brightburn (2019), Nightbooks (2021) and The Hive (2014).

42. Howard Deutch

Director | Pretty in Pink

Howard Deutch was born on September 14, 1950 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Pretty in Pink (1986), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) and The Great Outdoors (1988). He has been married to Lea Thompson since July 23, 1989. They have two children.

43. Matthew McConaughey

Actor | Interstellar

American actor and producer Matthew David McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas. His mother, Mary Kathleen (McCabe), is a substitute school teacher originally from New Jersey. His father, James Donald McConaughey, was a Mississippi-born gas station owner who ran an oil pipe supply business. He is ...

44. Gregory Hines

Actor | History of the World: Part I

Gregory Hines was born on February 14, 1946 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for History of the World: Part I (1981), Running Scared (1986) and Renaissance Man (1994). He was married to Pamela Koslow and Patricia Panella. He died on August 9, 2003 in Los Angeles,...

45. James Vanderbilt

Producer | Zodiac

James Vanderbilt was born in 1975 in the USA. He is a producer and writer, known for Zodiac (2007), Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) and Scream (2022). He has been married to Amber Freeman since May 7, 2005.

46. Fred Wolf

Writer | Grown Ups

Fred began work as a stand-up comedian in the early days of the "comic boom" in Los Angeles, and after more than 100 TV appearances and a two year stint co-hosting the popular Comedy Central show "Comics Only" with Paul Provenza, Fred began submitting jokes to Johnny Carson, Joan Rivers, and many ...

47. Jon Favreau

Producer | Chef

Initially an indie film favorite, actor Jon Favreau has progressed to strong mainstream visibility into the millennium and, after nearly two decades in the business, is still enjoying character stardom as well as earning notice as a writer/producer/director.

The amiable, husky-framed actor with the ...

48. Guillermo del Toro

Writer | El laberinto del fauno

Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Raised by his Catholic grandmother, del Toro developed an interest in filmmaking in his early teens. Later, he learned about makeup and effects from the legendary Dick Smith (The Exorcist (1973)) and worked on making his ...

49. Marlon Wayans

Actor | White Chicks

Marlon Wayans is an American actor, writer and comedian. He is known for playing Tyrone C. Love in Requiem for a Dream, Shorty Meeks from Scary Movie, Marcus Anthony Copeland II from White Chicks and Thunder from Marmaduke. He played Drake Winston/Robin in deleted scenes of Batman Returns and ...

50. Shawn Wayans

Actor | White Chicks

Shawn Mathis Wayans is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. Along with his brother Marlon Wayans, he wrote and starred in The WB's sitcom The Wayans Bros.(1995-1999) and in the comedy films Don't Be a Menace (1996), Scary Movie (2000), Scary Movie 2 (2001), White Chicks (2004), Little...

51. Ruben Fleischer

Director | Zombieland

Ruben Fleischer was born on October 31, 1974 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Zombieland (2009), Gangster Squad (2013) and Venom (2018). He has been married to Holly Shakoor Fleischer since November 10, 2012.

52. Eli Roth

Producer | Thanksgiving

Eli Raphael Roth was born in Newton, Massachusetts, to Cora (Bialis), a painter, and Sheldon H. Roth, a psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and clinical professor. His family is Jewish (from Austria, Hungary, Russia, and Poland). He began shooting Super 8 films at the age of eight; after watching Ridley ...

53. Roger Craig Smith

Actor | Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection

Voice actor and former stand-up comic Roger Craig Smith is a man of a thousand voices. In just one animation production alone, Roger voiced more than 170 characters for the Emmy award-winning Cartoon Network series Regular Show. He's the titular character "Mouse", as well as "Moose" for Amazon ...

54. Stephen Hopkins

Producer | Lost in Space

Stephen Hopkins is a producer and director, known for Lost in Space (1998), A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989) and Predator 2 (1990).

55. Kevin Smith

Producer | Clerks

Kevin Patrick Smith was born in Red Bank but grew up in Highlands, New Jersey, the son of Grace (Schultz) and Donald E. Smith, a postal worker. He is very proud of his native state; this fact can be seen in all of his movies. Kevin is of mostly German, with some Irish and English, ancestry.

His ...

56. Ivan Reitman

Producer | Up in the Air

Canadian producer and director Ivan Reitman created many of American cinema's most successful and best loved feature film comedies and worked with Hollywood's acting elite. Reitman produced such hits as the ground-breaking sensation National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), which ...

57. Sam Raimi

Director | Spider-Man

Highly inventive U.S. film director/producer/writer/actor Sam Raimi first came to the attention of film fans with the savage, yet darkly humorous, low-budget horror film, The Evil Dead (1981). From his childhood, Raimi was a fan of the cinema and, before he was ten-years-old, he was out making ...

58. James Gunn

Writer | Guardians of the Galaxy

James Gunn was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, to Leota and James Francis Gunn. He is from a large Catholic family, with Irish and Czech ancestry. His father and his uncles were all lawyers. He has been writing and performing as long as he can remember. He began making 8mm films at the age ...

59. Tom Clancy

Writer | The Hunt for Red October

Tom Clancy became one of the best-selling writers of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, starting with the publication of his 1984 thriller, The Hunt for Red October (1990). Born in Baltimore to a U.S. Post Office employee and his wife on April 12, 1947, Clancy graduated from Loyola Blakefield,...

60. Martin McDonagh

Writer | In Bruges

Martin McDonagh was born on March 26, 1970 in Camberwell, London, England, UK. He is a writer and director, known for In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).

61. George Miller

Producer | Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) being hailed as amongst the greatest action films of all time. Aside from the Mad Max ...

62. Oliver Stone

Director | JFK

Oliver Stone has become known as a master of controversial subjects and a legendary film maker. His films are filled with a variety of film angles and styles, he pushes his actors to give Oscar-worthy performances, and despite his failures, has always returned to success.

William Oliver Stone was ...

63. Taika Waititi

Producer | What We Do in the Shadows

Taika Waititi, also known as Taika Cohen, hails from the Raukokore region of the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand, and is the son of Robin (Cohen), a teacher, and Taika Waititi, an artist and farmer. His father is Maori (Te-Whanau-a-Apanui), and his mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish, Irish...

64. Tom Cruise

Actor | Top Gun

In 1976, if you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be Tom Cruise, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to join the priesthood. ...

65. Eddie Murphy

Actor | The Nutty Professor

Edward Regan Murphy was born April 3, 1961 in Brooklyn, New York, to Lillian Lynch (born: Lillian Laney), a telephone operator, and Charles Edward Murphy, a transit police officer who was also an amateur comedian and actor. After his father died, his mother married Vernon Lynch, a foreman at a ...

66. Rob Reiner

Actor | All in the Family

Robert Reiner was born in New York City, to Estelle Reiner (née Lebost) and Emmy-winning actor, comedian, writer, and producer Carl Reiner.

As a child, his father was his role model, as Carl Reiner created and starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show. Estelle was also an inspiration for him to become a ...

67. Dan Aykroyd

Writer | Ghostbusters

Daniel Edward Aykroyd was born on July 1, 1952 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to Lorraine Hélène (Gougeon), a secretary from a French-Canadian family, and Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd, a civil engineer who advised prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Aykroyd attended Carleton University in 1969, where...

68. Seth MacFarlane

Writer | Family Guy

Seth Woodbury MacFarlane was born in the small New England town of Kent, Connecticut, where he lived with his mother, Ann Perry (Sager), an admissions office worker, his father, Ronald Milton MacFarlane, a prep school teacher, and his sister, Rachael MacFarlane, now a voice actress and singer. He ...

69. Alex Proyas

Director | Dark City

Alex Proyas has moved effortlessly between helming TV commercials and music videos to feature films. Born to Greek parents in Egypt, Proyas relocated to Australia with his family when he was three years old. He began making films at age ten and went on to attend the Australian Film Television and ...